Bought a house in September 2007 and it had a wireless PW system in place.

Now we never got the alarm code but did eventually get the account number.

It was fine really - in a corner of a room and out of the way. Every night it called in to control -'phone call ok'.

It was always since we got the house in the 'home' setting.

We called PW and they said there was no monitoring and it could not be calling in.

We got used to it.

However yesterday there was about 5 power cuts and somehow it got switched from Home to Away and when I arrive in, it goes full volume. Simple fix was to cut the power to the sockets in this room.

Now this morning I call PW and guy claims power cuts would not cause this and one of us MUST have pushed the away button.

Anyway after a bit he gave us the four digit code, we had to trip the alarm first.

What I want to know is :

Are these wireless PW systems anygood?
Is it more likely that the power cuts caused it to move from home to away?
The guy in PW was upselling a service on me due to old batteries.
If in off position, it should be fine and even if batteries are knackered it should not go off.

Personally I would have it out but the OH would prefer it to stay there for 'safety'.

I do like how PW tell me it could not move to away without a person doing it as it really is a very simple piece of kit!

Just wondering who has experience with PW systems and any opinions on same.

I use to install these systems for them so know them inside out. The only drawback with them is they use the 433 frequency. It has so many devices on it now that problems are starting to happen with them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Guvnor

Are these wireless PW systems anygood?

They are the same as any alarm, it is there to deter someone from trying to break in and if they do try it will activate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Guvnor

Is it more likely that the power cuts caused it to move from home to away?

No chance, i have never heard of this happening before. The only thing i could say is when you set the alarm going out you hit the away instead of home.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Guvnor

The guy in PW was upselling a service on me due to old batteries.

Thats what they do so expect some letters in the post trying to get you to sign up to there service contract or monitoring again. You could replace the batteries yourself. They are camera batteries and you should get 3-5 years out of them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Guvnor

If in off position, it should be fine and even if batteries are knackered it should not go off.

If the batteries are dead the alarm wont be able to communicate with the sensors causing it to go into alarm. If the batteries are starting to go the panel will start reporting sensor** low battery. It should give you 6 months warning the batteries are starting to go.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Guvnor

Personally I would have it out but the OH would prefer it to stay there for 'safety'.

There is no point replacing it if it still works.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Guvnor

I do like how PW tell me it could not move to away without a person doing it as it really is a very simple piece of kit!

I have to agree with them on this, i have never seen this happen with there system before.

Altor has pretty much covered everything there.
With the exception of older systems . Like CP 32 etc Most systems will remember their last state in the even of total power loss. They should power back up in the same state,

Altor has pretty much covered everything there.
With the exception of older systems . Like CP 32 etc Most systems will remember their last state in the even of total power loss. They should power back up in the same state,

Just to say it could be 11 years old. The house is 11/12 years old and could be in since then.

There older system are being taken out and replaced as the key pad on them are starting to stick plus they dont have parts for these systems anymore but in your case you dont use the alarm so it should not affect you. If the alarm does go off your code will turn the alarm off. If it keeps going off for no reason you could down power the alarm and remove the back up battery.

If its like a 2 bed townhouse terraced probobly €700-€800.
Yes phonewatch will subsidise the price (donno about €500 though!) because they will be taking it off you again in monitoring fees. Not to mention you will probobly be getting a much older/more basic system.

Also if dealing with Eircom check if you get an outside bell. Generally you don't, this is to discourage you from cancelling your monitoring.

Thats a good point. €260 for a live external bell is what they charge, add that on to the €599 plus the monitoring charge and they easily have there money back for the discount off the alarm, but at that cost not many people do get one leading them having to continue there monitoring or have an alarm that only rings inside..